CDC report: Hospitals failing to support breast-feeding moms

Many moms can tell you, breast-feeding doesn’t always come naturally. It’s work getting those little buggers – that is the infants, not the breasts – to do what Mother Nature’s intends.

And while many hospitals are making an effort by providing lactation specialists, a new report finds many maternity wards are falling down on the job.

A new report says hospitals are failing mothers on the breast-feeding front. (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons)

This week in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers said in a new report they found that most hospitals around the country are failing to help new moms who want to breast-feed, researchers Tuesday in the journal.

The researchers, in this NPR story, point out there are several common practices by hospitals that may actually prevent moms from sticking with breast-feeding for six months — the duration thought to be most healthful for babies. And most hospitals only implement five of the 10 practices recommended by the World Health Organization.

“We’ve seen significant progress in recent years,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a press conference. “But there’s still more to be done. … Hospitals really need to support women before, during and after their hospital stay.”

The report found about 75 percent of hospitals still give healthy babies some formula in the first days of life, even when moms say they want to breast-feed.

“Even a little bit of formula may undermine a strong start to breastfeeding,” Frieden says.

Only about a third of hospitals offer women breast-feeding help after they leave the hospital. These hospitals could refer women to support groups, for example, or connect them with lactation consultants.

Such support can be crucial for helping moms push through the early challenges of breast-feeding, epidemiologist Cria Perrine, who led the study, told NPR.

“These problems can be overcome with early professional support,” Perrine says, especially in the first few days after moms go home from the hospital.

Without support, many mothers say they quit breast-feeding because of pain, or because of concerns that they aren’t producing enough milk, or because the baby was having trouble latching on correctly.

Hospitals make big money through their maternity wards, so it might behoove them to correct this.

The CDS found that 90 percent of birthing centers are teaching women how to breast-feed. At these centers, about 65 percent are encouraging moms to breast-feed within the first hour after birth. “A mother needs every opportunity to express her milk in the beginning to establish her supply,” Perrine says.